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To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (2809)	11/24/2009 9:11:01 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 23934

Walpin Is Cleared Investors Business Daily Nov 24, 2009 investors.com Oversight: After an unjust firing and campaign of character assassination, the former AmeriCorps inspector general has been cleared of acting improperly. Now where does he go to get his job and reputation back? On June 10, Gerald Walpin was fired with one hour's notice as the watchdog of AmeriCorps in violation of a federal law requiring Congress to be given a heads-up 30 days in advance. He then fell victim to a campaign of character assassination. When pressed for a reason for the sudden and improper dismissal of a federal watchdog, the White House responded with a letter to Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Susan Collins, respectively the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, from Norm Eisen, special counsel to President Obama. The letter said Walpin's firing was at the unanimous request of the AmeriCorps board of directors. It described a May 20, 2009, board meeting where the 77-year-old Walpin "was confused, disoriented and unable to answer questions and exhibited behavior that led the board to question his capacity to serve." Had this occurred in private industry, no doubt the administration's EEOC would have filed an age discrimination suit. Walpin was fully competent and a congressional hearing with Walpin testifying would have shown that. He wasn't guilty of exceeding his authority either. Something else was afoot. It seems that Walpin did a very bad thing — his job. He followed the money and discovered that part of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal AmeriCorps funds given to St. Hope Academy in Sacramento, Calif., had been misspent on questionable activities. Walpin filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., in July alleging that he was improperly discharged while investigating whether former NBA star and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, an administration ally and campaign contributor, has misused the fund intended for the nonprofit education group that Johnson headed. The suit is still pending. In support of his suit, Walpin submitted an Oct. 19 letter from the Integrity Committee of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency saying that the probe into his conduct had been closed. It stopped short of offering him his old job back. "After carefully considering the allegations described in the complaint together with your response," Walpin was told, "the IC has determined the response sufficiently and satisfactorily addressed the matter. And that further inquiry or an investigation regarding the matter was not warranted." In other words, Walpin was not addled, and he was fired for no good reason except, apparently, that he was getting too close to the misuse of federal funds by a contributor and supporter of an administration that had promised to be the most transparent ever. We now learn, thanks to the yeoman reporting by the Washington Examiner's Byron York, that the funds in question may have been used for purposes other than just, according to an early AP report, "to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Mr. Johnson and even wash his car." A report prepared by Sen. Charles Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, goes into charges of sexual misconduct by Johnson and some of the funds allegedly being paid out as hush money. As York notes in the congressional report, D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee, now Johnson's fiancee and then on St. Hope's board, "learned of the allegations and played the role of the fixer, doing 'damage control.'" Considering the many fraudulent and fruitless ways stimulus money has been spent, and the dishonest reports of job creation, we're going to need more honest watchdogs like Gerald Walpin. We'd suggest he be rehired and given a new job — the one Vice President Joe Biden has overseeing the stimulus.

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (2809)	11/24/2009 9:35:23 PM
From: joseffy	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23934

Obama Hits A Rough Spot Bangkok Post, Thailand ^ \| 25 November 2009 bangkokpost.com President Barack Obama of the United States has hit the one-year political wall hard, and it especially showed during his recent trip to Asia. In the year since Mr Obama was elected, both the excitement of the polls and the expectations have worn off. As with all democratic leaders, election hullabaloo has been replaced by reality. Not all promises can be achieved quickly, or in the way they were presented in a free-wheeling election. In some ways, Mr Obama has been brought down to Earth, and his achievement-free Asian tour is a case in point. The high point of the US leader's trip turned out to be during his first stop in Tokyo. There, he made a policy speech promising that the days when the George W Bush administration ignored Asia were over. His vow to reinvigorate US-Asian relations capped his speech and his trip. From then on, he ducked serious economic questions such as criticism of growing American protectionism made at the Apec summit in Singapore, and simply ignored even the most blatant political issues, in particular when Chinese authorities censored his speech to the nation on the advantages of openness in media and on the internet. By the time he left Asia after a visit to South Korea, Mr Obama looked weary. It appears that he has, indeed, reached the end of his gracious political honeymoon. Popularity polls at home put his approval rating below 50% - roughly the average for new presidents after a year in office. Overseas, it is a different matter. Mr Obama has already broken his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for terrorists. His defiant decision to order a trial in New York City for leading terrorists, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, has been savaged by many in the US. But now it is under strong attack from Europe. Germany has said it may not be able to cooperate in any manner with the prosecution, because Mr Obama is seeking the death penalty. German cooperation is highly important if the prominent terrorists are to be convicted, because many of the 9/11 plans were drawn up in Germany and monitored or later uncovered by German government investigators. Mr Obama's first trip to Asia has drawn strong media criticism in the US for lack of planning and achievement. The US leader returned to Washington without any agreements from any governments, an unusual occurrence for the carefully choreographed trips by US presidents. Perhaps more importantly for his standing, Mr Obama was savagely satirised by the popular TV comedy show Saturday Night Live for his failure to convince China that its investments in the US are safe. Mr Obama until now has been considered untouchable by the US entertainment industry which almost unanimously backed his run for the presidency. His foreign policy in particular has been highly disappointing. Contrary to his promises, he has failed to galvanise the United States, his Senate or even his own officials on the issue of climate change. The promise on Monday that his administration will announce targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a weak substitute for real action. He has put off a decision on whether to attend the Copenhagen global warming conference. He also has delayed any decision on the next US step in Afghanistan - even while asking Canada and European allies for more troops in that war.